Ever since the Stone Age, China has
led the world in ceramic art and
design. Its pottery workshops have
inspired us with their modelling,
glazes, firing techniques, painting
and enamelling, and its porcelain
remains the finest ever made.

Some of the thousands of Terracotta
Army Warriors being reassembled.
The 8,000 warriors took 38 years to
make ( c.246-208 BCE), using over
700,000 workers, and were buried
with Emperor Qin Shi Huang
of the Qin Dynasty.

Earthenware Budda
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

DIFFERENT FORMS OF ARTS
For definitions, meanings and
explanations of different arts,
see Types of Art.

Ancient pottery
in China dates back to Paleolithic culture. In 2012, scientists announced
that fragments of Xianrendong Cave Pottery
(Jiangxi province) had been carbon-dated to 18,000 BCE, making them the
oldest known pots in the world. (See: Oldest
Stone Age Art.) The next oldest ceramic
art from China (dating to 16,000 BCE) is the cache of Yuchanyan
Cave pottery from Hunan Province. (For contemporaneous works outside
China, see the independently instigated Vela
Spila pottery from Croatia, and the Chinese-influenced Amur
River Basin Pottery in Russia's Far East. Meanwhile, in Japan, clay-fired
pots began with Jomon Pottery
from 14,500 BCE.) Most of this early ceramic ware was hand-made by coiling,
then fired in bonfires. Decoration was achieved by stamping, impressing
and other simple methods. Motifs were typically abstract or geometric
in nature. However, based on archeological excavations across south China,
it appears that Chinese potters soon began to produce a range of delicate,
polished and coloured vessels for more ceremonial purposes. These emerged
in a number of Neolithic cultures which grew up along the Yellow and Yangtze
river valleys, like the Dadiwan (6000 BCE), Pan-po (5000 BCE), Miao-ti-kou
(4000-3000 BCE), and Yangshao (4000-2000 BCE), and especially the more
advanced Longshan (3000-2000 BCE) and Dawenkou (4500-3500 BCE). For details,
see: Neolithic Art in China (7500-2000
BCE).

By 3000 BCE, these Stone Age ceramics exemplified
a craftsmanship and elegance which was quite exceptional for the time.
Closely interlinked with social status, as evidenced by the presence of
fine pottery, jade carving and other precious
objects in the burial mounds of prosperous individuals, this ceramic form
of Chinese art was further enhanced by the early
development of bronze, and Chinese lacquering
techniques. For the chronological evolution of ceramics (earthenware and
porcelain) in China, see: Chinese
Art Timeline (c.18,000 BCE - present). See also Asian
Art (from 38,000 BCE onwards).

Scientific, political and social developments
in the Bronze Age during the Xia Dynasty Culture
(2100-1600), as well as the Shang (c.1600-1050 BCE) and Zhou (1050-221
BCE) dynasties led to a number of changes in pottery production. (See:
Shang Dynasty Art and its successor Zhou
Dynasty Art.) Ceramicists experimented with techniques of high-fired
glazing, creating pots with a brownish appearance which presaged Yueh
ware, the later class of green ware known as celadon. Also,
as prosperity increased and family groups coalesced to form new cities
and principalities, a new market sprang up for the replacement of vessels
and other objects cast in bronze to be made instead from cheaper clay,
especially for home or funerary use. This expansion of the ceramics industry
led to the emergence of a more streamlined mass-production process involving
a clearer division of labour and facilitating greater use of lacquerware,
molds, stamps and more elaborate methods of decoration.

The ceramic highlight of Qin
dynasty art was the Terracotta Army, a massive collection of
8,000 warriors, 130 chariots and 150 horses, along with numerous officials,
acrobats, strongmen and musicians. This extravagant but awesomely lifelike
set of clay figures, most of which still remain to be excavated, reputedly
took 700,000 workers over 38 years to produce. It was commissioned by
the Qin Emperor Qin Shihuang Ling for his mausoleum in Shaanxi
province, and represents unquestionably the finest collection of terracotta
sculpture in the history of art. Sadly, over the intervening years
between their burial in 208 BCE and their discovery in 1974 CE, the sculptures
have lost nearly all of their decorative paint.

[Note: The Qin Dynasty coincided with the
final period of Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean. For information
about the art of ceramics in Ancient Greece, see: Greek
Pottery.]

Chinese Pottery During
the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE)

The first of China's four most important
dynasties, the Han era witnessed numerous cultural developments
as well as the establishment of The Silk Road - the main overland
trade route with the Middle East and Europe. Han pottery production was
strongly influenced by three factors. First, continued growth in demand
for all types of ceramic vessel, as well as ornaments, figurines, architectural
models, farmyard animals, and horses, which in turn stimulated the emergence
of a countrywide assembly-line industry capable of producing large quantities
of mass-produced mold-shaped earthenware. Second, the discovery of fine
clays containing kaolinite, from which an early form of true porcelain
was made, initially in the province of Zhejiang. Thirdly, the invention
of lead glazing, in which clay slips were coloured with copper to produce
a green glaze, or iron to create yellow or brown. A soft-bodied variety
of lead-glazed earthenware was produced in central China, while a high-fired
stoneware version was the favoured product in southern China. Other developments
during the era of Han Dynasty Art (206 BCE
- 220 CE) included new forms of lacquer ware and polished black pottery,
in both glazed and unglazed varieties.

Chinese Pottery During
the Six Dynasties (220-589)

The Han Dynasty was followed by over 350
years of wars and political disunity - an era usually referred to as the
Six Dynasties - during which both Buddhism and Taoism increased in popularity
at the expense of Confucianism. In spite of this, arts
of the Six Dynasties Period continued to develop in the area of Chinese
painting, calligraphy, printmaking (via the invention of woodblock
printing), and sculpture. In the field of ceramics, the Six Dynasties
period is chiefly known for developments in the production of "Yueh
ware" - a class of high-fired porcelaineous stoneware marked by a
range of coloured glazes, varying from shades of green (known as Celadon
ware), to hues of yellow and blue. Potters created Yueh ware by using
iron oxide as the glaze colouring agent and firing the clay in a reduction
atmosphere over 1200 degrees centigrade. Colour control was achieved by
varying the composition of the glaze and the conditions of firing.

Chinese Pottery During
the Sui and Tang Dynasties (589-906)

The brief era of Sui
Dynasty art (589-618) was followed by China's second great dynasty
- the Tangs. Tang Dynasty art (618-906)
was noted for a number of innovations. First, a popular range of exhuberant
multi-coloured low-fired earthenware figurines (eg. camels and horses)
for use as funerary items in tombs. Second, the invention of a set of
highly unusual San-t'sai three-colour (green, yellow/amber, cream) or
cobalt blue lead-glazes. Thirdly, a new range of lime-glazed Yueh celadon
stoneware. Lastly, an improved variety of high-fired, translucent porcelains,
manufactured in the northern provinces of Hebei and Henan. The last three
innovations had a significant impact on succeeding generations of Chinese
ceramicists, and - when news eventually filtered out - on ceramic styles
throughout Europe. Tang porcelain, made from a combination of kaolin
and petuntse (feldspar) and characterized by its translucent white
clay body fired at a temperature between 1250-1450 degrees centigrade,
was the thinnest yet hardest ceramic ever developed. Its pure white background
gave ceramic artists the perfect base for colouring, and its plasticity
made it ideal for delicate sculpture and ornamental work. It wasn't until
the early 1700s, some eight centuries later, that comparable porcelain
was produced in the West. For more chronological details on the evolution
of East Asian ceramics, see: Pottery
Timeline (26,000 BCE-1900).

Chinese Pottery During
the Song Dynasty (960-1279)

Viewed as the golden age of Chinese ceramic
art, the great era of Song Dynasty art
witnessed a country of two halves: a Northern half which enjoyed a relatively
high degree of tranquility, and a Southern zone beset by invasion and
upheaval. Despite this, most art historians agree that pottery reached
its apogee during the Song period. More subtle than either its predecessors
or successors, Song pottery was characterized by flowing monochrome glazes
and a depth of colour that moves the viewer to touch and contemplate.
In terms of their technical prowess, innovation, and aesthetic sensitivity
to glaze and shape, Song potters stand above all others in the quality
of their ceramic art. For a guide to the aesthetic principles behind traditional
arts and crafts in China, see: Traditional
Chinese Art: Characteristics.

Here is a short list of the most notable
examples of Song ceramic ware.

Ding Ware (c.1000-1400)

The most famous and refined of Song Dynasty
white stoneware, made in the Ding kilns of Hepei Province, south-west
of Beijing. Ding ware was characterized by impressed and incised floral
designs on high-fired, grey-coloured clay, overlaid with ivory-white slips
and transparent glazes. Some vessels were decorated with hand carved patterns
as well as intricate pressed motifs.

Qingbai Ware (c.960-1350)

Qingbai (meaning blue-white), also referred
to as 'yingqing' (shadow blue), was a type of early porcelain made from
a fine white paste overlaid with a thin, shiny bluish-white glaze. Produced
at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, Qingbai porcelain led to the
later introduction of the blue-and-white idiom, in Jingdezhen.
The bluish tint was created by the reducing effect of the fuel (pinewood)
used to fire the clay. Although relatively highly priced, Qingbai ware
was much sought after by the middle class throughout China.

Black-Glazed Pottery
(c.960-1250)

Accounting for as much as 20 percent of
all Song Dynasty pottery, black-glazed ware (sometimes browny-black-glazed)
comprised a range of functional items popular among the lower middle classes.
Production centres included Fujian province, whose kilns produced opulent
black ware using iron rich glazes from which they derived their famous
'hare's-fur,' 'partridge-feather,' and 'oil-spot' varieties, and workshops
in Jiangxi, which employed stencil, leaf, and other complex designs in
their glazes to make their stoneware tea bowls. Black-glazed stoneware
became exceptionally popular with all classes as Fujianese tea drinking
spread throughout Chinese society.

Northern Celadon
Pottery (c.960-1450)

Northern celadon ware denotes a highly
popular form of high-fired stoneware made in kilns and workshops in Shanxi
province. It comprised a type of thin grey-coloured ware decorated with
impressed or hand carved designs (featuring flowers, waves, fish, dragons,
clouds) and overlaid with a translucent olive-green glaze, which was created
from a mixture of iron and titanium oxide.

Longquan Celadon
(c.960-1279)

Reputedly the most sophisticated porcelaineous
celadon of the Song Dynasty, Longquan greenware was made in the Southern
province of Zhejiang. Initially featuring a blue-green glaze on a fine,
hard-wearing porcelain body, potters later developed a series of lime-alkali
and jade-coloured glazes which were revered and imitated by later ceramicists
during the Qing dynasty during the 18th century.

Jun Ware Pottery (c.1050-1450)

Characterized by their rich, opalescent
glazes in a range of colours such as lavender blue, light green, and blue
with purple splashes, this dark bodied stoneware was produced in Honan
province. The finest examples of Jun ware feature light grey vessels decorated
with light blue glazes. In later varieties potters added splashes of darker
colour (eg. crimson or purple) by mixing copper-rich materials to the
glaze.

Tz'u-chou Pottery
(960-1600)

Tz'u-chou ceramic ware encompasses a type
of sturdy functional stoneware made in Honan, Shanxi, and Shandong provinces
in Northern China during the Song and Ming dynasties (960-1644). It's
signature feature is a creamy white slip which brightens the buff-grey
tone of the clay body, typically decorated with black-and-white floral
designs. The white slip led ceramicists to experiment with a wide variety
of decorative techniques, including: incising, cut-glaze technique, black
slip sgraffiato designs over the white slip, green lead-underglaze,
and an early form of enamel overglaze.

Chinese Pottery During
the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1365)

During the era of Yuan
Dynasty art under the Mongols, led by Kublai Khan the grandson of
Genghis Khan, the first blue-and-white porcelain was made and exported
to Europe, startling everyone with its unique qualities. It was during
the Yuan era that Jingdezhen, a town in the southern province of
Jiangxi, started to become the most important centre of porcelain production
in China and consequently the most important pottery centre in the world.

Chinese Pottery During
the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

The last of the great four Chinese dynasties,
the Ming era coincided with the European Renaissance and, as in
Europe, it witnessed an upsurge in architecture, the arts and above all
ceramic art. Porcelain - the signature feature of Ming
Dynasty art - was perfected during the Ming Dynasty, and Xuande porcelain
is now considered among the finest of all Ming ceramics. Moreover, the
quality of Ming blue and whites is considered to be the greatest
Chinese porcelain ever produced. All
this contributed immensely to the global reputation of Chinese potters
during the late Ming period when China shifted towards a market economy
and began a huge program of porcelain exports to Europe during the rule
of the Wanli Emperor (1572-1620).

Another major advance occured in enameled
decoration, which flourished under the Chenghua Emperor (1464-1487).
Improvements were also found in the formula for cobalt-blue glaze, whose
colour had a tendency to bleed (spread) during firing. The addition of
manganese to the glaze prevented this, although the result was less lustrous.
Overall, workshops experimented with new methods of modelling and shaping,
new painted designs (the most popular motifs being dragon and phoenix),
and showed a new willingness to embrace foreign ideas.

Blanc de Chine

Manufactured in Dehua, Fujian province,
Blanc de Chine (China White) is a type of white Chinese porcelain which
first appeared during the Ming Dynasty. The key characteristic of Dehua
porcelain is its extremely low iron-oxide content, which gives it
an instantly recognizable warm milk-white or ivory-white appearance. In
contrast, Jingdezhen porcelain has a much higher iron content and a correspondingly
different character. Although potters produced a wide variety of shapes
in Blanc de Chine - such as: cups and bowls, brush holders, vases and
jars, teapots, lamps, cup-stands, and so on - its greatest examples were
figures, especially religious figures, such as Guanyin, the Goddess of
Mercy. Blanc de Chine white porcelain from Dehua is especially popular
in Japanese art where it is called hakugoraior
or Korean white. One of the world's broadest collections of Ming
pottery (including Blanc de Chine) outside China and Taiwan is in the
British Museum, in London.
Amassed over 250 years, the collection includes around 7000 Chinese pieces
- from the Stone Age to the present - of which some 900 are Ming Dynasty
ceramics.

Note: For the impact of Chinese painting,
sculpture, jade carving and pottery on the culture of Korea, see: Korean
Art (c.3,000 BCE onwards).

Chinese Pottery During
the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911/12)

During the era of Qing
Dynasty Art, potters began using bright colours to adorn plates and
vases with meticulously painted scenes. Porcelain ceramicists began producing
five-coloured ware by applying a variety of underglaze pigments
to floral, landscape and figurative scenes - a style which was (and is)
highly sought-after in the West. During the Yung Cheng era (1723-1735)
porcelain was enhanced by the development of fencai enamel in a wide range
of colours and tones.

Note: It was during the Qing Dynasty
that Europe experienced a surge of interest in (pseudo) Chinese decorative
art. Known as chinoiserie,
this fashion included a range of motifs used in Chinese pottery.

Chinese Pottery
During the Modern Era (1912-present)

The turmoil in China during the first two-thirds
of the 20th century led to a decline in the quality and output of ceramics
across the country, especially porcelain. However, over the last 20 years
production has been revived by the authorities as part of its ongoing
program to invigorate China's cultural reputation across the visual and
plastic art spectrum. As
well as modern methods of maufacture, a number of centres have been re-established
to reproduce the traditional pottery of the great dynasties.